Chapter 1: Introduction to Leadership Theory and Strategic Leadership

The act of leadership is as old as human civilization. One of the pillars for the progress of human civilization has been humankind’s capability for working collaboratively in teams. History abounds with examples of teams with better leaders excelling. In the past, human organization and leadership were best represented by political emperors and military empires. In the present-day context, business organization and its leadership occupies a central position in society. Leadership has always been an interesting topic of investigation since ancient times. In modern times, the first leadership theory was the trait theory (Stogdill, 1948). Several other theories such as behavioural (Blake & Mouton, 1985), contingency (Fiedler, 1964), social exchange relational (Graen & Uhl-bien, 1995), neo-charismatic (Judge & Piccolo, 2004), power and influence (Vecchio, 2007), follower-centric (Baker, 2007), team leadership (Taggar, Hackew, & Saha, 1999), strategic leadership (Boal & Hooijberg, 2001; Finkelstein & Hambrick, 1996; Ireland & Hitt, 1999; Vera & Crossan, 2004), ethical leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), leadership development (Bass & Avolio, 1997; Day, 2001), social network approaches to leadership (Balkundi & Kilduff, 2006; Mehra, Dixon, Brass, & Robertson, 2006; Pastor & Mayo, 2002), innovation and leadership (Amabile, 1988; Jaussi & Dionne, 2003; Mumford & Licuanan, 2004), pygmalion effect (Eden, 1990, 1993; Eden & Ravid, 1982; White & Locke, 2000), entrepreneurial leadership (Gupta, MacMillan, & Surie, 2004; Kuratko, 2007; Prabhu, 1999), e-leadership (Avolio & Kahai, 2003; Avolio, Kahai, & Dodge, 2001; Cascio & Shurygailo, 2003), destructive leadership (Aasland, Skogstad, Notelaers, Nielsen, & Einarsen, 2010; Einarsen, Aasland, & Skogstad, 2007; Ferris, Zinko, Brouer, Buckley, & Harvey, 2007; Krasikova, Green, & LeBreton, 2013; Schyns & Schilling, 2013) and outstanding leadership (Holmberg & Åkerblom, 2001; Ligon, Hunter, & Mumford, 2008; Tamkin, Pearson, Hirsh, & Constable, 2010) were studied. In this study, the authors interacted with Indian business leaders to document the significance and relevance of the various predominant leadership theories. The authors primarily explored the divergence of Indian leadership practices with respect to the well-established extant leadership theories. The authors have also acknowledged the points of convergence. Attempts have been made to bring new practical insights and make a theoretical contribution to the extant leadership theory conversation.